Mark Hamill Shares the ‘Very First’ Photo of Himself as Luke Skywalker

For franchise movie fans, nothing grates on the nerves quite like the lull between the day production wraps on a new movie and the day the first teaser drops. Production has been finished on Star Wars: The Last Jedifor a few months now, and since we’re not quite sure when Disney will be releasing the first trailer for the film, we’re latching onto any piece of information we can get about the new film or any new Star Warscontent, period. In short, we’re in the business of reading too much into Mark Hamill’s Twitter account.

Earlier today, Hamill took to Twitter (via Variety) to share what he describes as “perhaps the very first” photo of himself as Luke Skywalker. As a reminder, we do have footage of Hamill during the audition process for Star Wars, but unless the costuming for the character changed dramatically in the weeks leading up to the production, this could very well be the first photos of we’ve seen. Since we’re being nostalgic, here’s a link to the audition footage:

Thanks to the obsessive reporting around the franchise, we can also fill in a little more history surrounding this photo. In 2014, the official Star Wars website ran a feature on the first day of shooting, which took place on Monday, March 22, 1976. The Star Wars article highlights the experiences of Anthony Daniels, who had slept poorly the night before and would grumble his way through two hours of makeup before the shoot, but according to the piece, Hamill “quite enjoyed the first day as Luke Skywalker.” Does that photo of Hamill look like a man enjoying his first day? It all depends on you feel about that 6:30 AM casting call.

Why post an original photo of Luke Skywalker just now? While it’s certainly possible that Hamill is just going through old boxes of Star Wars photos and sharing some of the ones that stand out, the conspiracy theorist in me immediately wonders if this means Luke Skywalker won’t survive Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Star Wars hasn’t exactly been kind to its mentor Jedi figures, and the previous film showed the next generation are willing to make some tough choices about the original cast. Nothing screams an ending like someone waxing poetic about a beginning.